Life of A Krimson Guard
by Crave-2-Create
Summary: It isn't easy being a Krimson Guard. Lana, a girl from the slums, is drafted and forced into service for the Krimzon Guard. She and her friends from the Guard fight to save Haven City and one of her KG buddies from the research division!
1. Conscription

_**Authours note**_:Okay now! hi! This is an authors note. I just wanted to make sure that there was a disclaimer for copyright reasons. This is purely a fan based fiction (hense the site name huh? lolz!) But just so we are sure, I don't own Jak and daxter, Jak 2, or Jak3 or Jak X. All rights and credit for the game go toward naughty dog and anyone else or any other company that claims the copyright for the series, characters, etc. I take no credit! Ok. Now that that is over with, Enjoy! Feedback is very much appreciated. An lastly I have a question. Should I put this disclaimer on all of the chapters? Or just this beginning chapter? Advice would be great!

Okay last part, this is my first fan fiction and I know everyone has a wii or something now but this is a great game and I hope at least someone is reading this! ^w^

Hopefully im not wasting my time by writing this FanFic! Okay! NOW go!

Day 1: Conscription

"No! Lana don't go!" Lana's younger brother, Alaric, of six years bawled, running across the dirty kitchen floor of her home and clung to her older sister (age 17) who was about to leave. "It's not fair! Why do you have to leave!" Lana sighed and dropped her things gently to the floor, her blood red armor clanging slightly as she knelt down to hug her brother. " I told you Alaric, I got drafted."

"Hurry up." A shorter man in yellow who was clearly the leader of the group of guards behind him barked. "We don't have time to wait for your long goodbyes." He scolded Lana, smirking at the fact that she had to listen; seeing as how he was now her commanding officer.

"Sissy has to go work for the Krimson Guard now…" She looked at her parents cowering on the other side of the room from the guns pointed at them with a forlorn expression; and back down at her brother. "So behave while I'm gone, okay?"

She smiled, falsely at him and stroked a lock of dirty hair out of his face with one hand, her helmet in the other. Her brother began to sob. "O-Okay." He managed to choke out.

Lana stood and slipped the helmet over her head firmly. The look in her family's face was no longer the pain from losing their daughter, but almost a fear of the new Krimson Guard recruit that had suddenly appeared before them. Lana emerged from her home into the dank slum air outside. She didn't say goodbye, and she never collected her things that she left at the door…

Days later Lana would be forced to lead a raid on her own home. Everything was either taken, or destroyed; her home set on fire and reduced to ash.

Her parents managed to escape the fire only because they were arrested for harboring fugitives from the rebel group known as the Underground.

When the impoverished citizens of Haven City's slums began picking through the ash and rubble for anything salvageable, the body of a small child was found.

It was burned beyond recognition.


	2. A change of face

Day 2: A Change of Face

Well this was just fan-fucking-tastic, wasn't it? First she has to leave home to work for the stupid Baron who (to put it as gently as possible) was an asshole and his mother should have gotten an abortion. Now she was stuck with a creepy guy in a dimly lit room made entirely of metal, and she could hardly tell where the door was! And not only that the freak had an electric needle of some sort and he had been…

"Oww!" Lana yelped. "Don't be such a baby!" The Krimson guard growled at her, getting quite fed up with her fidgeting and flinching. "If you can't hold still, don't blame me when this needle gets wedged in your eye!"

"Okay! Okay! God!"

The cranky older man shook his head with deep disapproval. It really seemed as though he hated this job. And he reeked of smoke, and man odor! She always hated that smell.

Lana crossed her arms and grumbled with her eyes shut, while her rather rugged looking (and not in a good way) comrade finished working on her facial tattoos; questioning the usefulness of something so stupid…and painful!

The needle buzzed, and her face bled for a long time, since the tattoo took for freaking ever to finish! Her long ears twitch from the itching sensation the open air was giving her freshly pigmented skin…Smokey the bear, that was what she would call him; for his smell, would dab some of it off with a less than sanitary looking cloth…eww!

There." The tattoo artist said when he finished.

"Finally!" Lana stood up and exclaimed. She picked up her helmet and was about to put it on when she saw her reflection. The pattern was intricate yes, but it converged in a target like shape between both brows with a large un-pigmented spot in the middle. The thing she hated most was that she had a similar design surrounding the bottoms of her eyes to that man in yellow that she had come to despise since last she saw him.

"Oh yeah, thanks officer!" She thanked sarcastically. "This tattoo has a very unique statement! It says: Shoot me! Right here!" she pressed her index finger to the target, and then flinched. Ok… note to self: don't touch the tattoo until it heals! Ow! Well…at least it had stopped bleeding.

"You're welcome stupid. Here take this." he lit a cigar, and handed her a sheet of paper and handed her four cards each of different colors, with similar designs. One was green, one yellow and another red; while the last was a simple white card with her picture and basic information. The "This is where you will go, where you will bunk, who your bunkmate is, and where you will go for basic training. The cards are your security passes for city checkpoints as well as your ID."

Lana held her helmet under her arm, and took it kindly; simply nodding in acquiescence.

Mainly to avoid offending someone in a higher rank than herself; even though it was too late to consider that; seeing as how she had already done so.

Now, the next order of business she supposed, would be to find her bunk. So she turned to leave.

"Miss…" Lana turned back around at the door. "Yeah?" The older man raised a brow, which until now Lana hadn't noticed that there was a scar on it. "I mean yes sir?"

The tattoo artist lit a cigar and put it to his lips, tattoos bending and morphing along with the movements of his face. Taking a breath and blowing out a heavy haze of smoke before he spoke he warned:

"A word of warning to you Miss. There are men here who wouldn't hesitate to…take advantage of you. You will be on your own here on out. So watch yourself."

Take advantage? What exactly did he mean by that? His words chilled her, and she wondered if he may have been referring to himself. "Yes Sir. Thank you."

Lana let herself out, her brain screaming at her.

Holy crap! What do I do? There are rapists running around all over here! And what's worse Smokey the Pedo Bear is after me! Ahh!

Alright …maybe things weren't going to be as bad as they seemed. She should calm down, Yeah…

Okay things were going to absolutely suck and there was no denying it!

This was indeed a far cry from her home in the slums. And so far, Lana was not amused!

But there was no sense in the quickening of giving herself a nervous breakdown, so Lana decided to take a deep breath and try to find her bunk and her bunkmate. "Alright…" She mumbled to herself down a long hallway. It was all so boring and bland, not to mention that everything looked the same. It was the same as the room that she had come from earlier. There were two walls on either side of her, lined with doors Oh yeah, this is going to be cake she thought sarcastically. "Bunk number 532..." she stopped at the door with the matching number.

"Bunkmate 6516 dash 404. Hmm…" Lana opened the door and was surprised at the level of luxury there was (to her anyway). There were two beds big enough for one person stacked like on a prison wall, and an actual latrine behind a separate door. There were even a few spare tall cabinets on the floor. But it wasn't as though she would need either of the two. She had nothing but the clothes and armor on her back in her possession.

She hoped that the place had clean running water though. That would be fantastic! Though for other people this would hardly qualify as good living conditions.

The door opened and shut behind her automatically as she walked up to it, which was pretty cool... Lana gave an approving whistle.

And looky there! Her roomy had already claimed the bottom bunk! She was going to claim the top bunk anyway, but this would save for the awkward question of who would receive it; as well as save her bunkmate a few bruises when she kicked their butt for it!

She took off her helmet and set it on the bunk above her and proceeded to remove the rest of her armor. If this was going to be the place in which she slept Lana figured that she may as well get comfortable. Plus night was drawing closer as the hours passed, and it wasn't likely that any of the new soldiers would be called for much of anything because of the busy schedule.

After removing the clunky blood colored exoskeleton, Lana was down to a pair of worn out shorts and a tank top. So she decided that underwear and a shirt would be fine. Who cared really? Her bunkmate would more than likely be female anyhow. It would make sense to pair her with another female, right? So Lana most certainly didn't mind. She relaxed waiting for her roomy to arrive, assuming she had stepped out for a spell. But when she didn't show up at first, Lana began to wonder.

She leaned over the bunk to peak beneath her. There was a duffle bag of some sort with shorts, and tank tops, and portable grooming things. There were also useless looking things like a book that she couldn't completely see the title of also shoved in the duffle bag. Vaguely Lana wondered why it was called a duffle bag, and what a duffle even was!

Lana grabbed the book and turned to a random page and began to read. It made her want to vomit! It was such a bore! How anyone could read this was beyond her! So she returned it to its owner's chosen spot, even though she was tempted to toss it in the trash.

But soon a strange and upbeat humming, which was coming from behind the door to the latrine soon became audible. It was a direct and obvious contrast to the overall mood of the entire building. But it was a welcome one, because everything was so dull and macabre here. The humming continued and the automatic door slid open, revealing a very handsome young man with a towel wrapped around his waist. He was not very heavily built but toned and perhaps a little slim compared to the rest of the guard she had seen so far. His presence seemed to bring a sigh of relief to the atmosphere.

Lana said nothing to him, waiting to see if he had noticed that there was someone else in the room.

But his humming continued, and he was apparently completely oblivious of her being there. This guy probably wasn't going to last long.

The top of his head was just visible to Lana, and she began to grow bored. She yawned and ran her fingers through her long brown hair, and winced when she grazed one of the tattoos. Ouch. And the young man still hadn't noticed. She studied his head nonchalantly; and thought his hair quite interesting. His hair color was very similar to hers, only it was pulled back into thin dreadlocks, some of which hung in his face. Though…his hair was a bit darker.

His tattoos didn't match hers at all and she was jealous in a way; mostly because he didn't have a design that was just begging to have him shot between the eyes. It was much more square and pixilated than hers, and looked more like war paint because the designs seemed to be so sparse around his face. Lucky!

Finally though, she decided that it was time to say hello because she was getting tired of the silence. Other than his humming of course.

"Ya have a nice shower?" Lana asked, not expecting the reaction that she had received. He jolted up and hit his head on the bottom of her bunk with a yelp.

He backed away and looked up her, finally. But when he saw her, his face went beat red. "Um…uh…ma'm…I.." He looked to the floor shyly, stuttering. "Please…P-put some clothes on."

Lana looked at him strangely and ignored his request. She thought that she looked perfectly fine. "Hey are you…" She looked at the sheet of paper she had been given by "Smokey". "…6516 dash 404?"

He stuttered again, only this time he spoke very quietly. "yes…I…am. Are you soldier number…" he cautiously fumbled through his things and found a slip of his own.

"…number 4428 dash 652?"

Lana looked at her ID card. She hadn't really bothered to check her ID number. But there it was, very clear. "Yeah, I guess so. Hey…" 6516-404 looked up at her with grey rabbit eyes, which darted away again. "You got a name?" She asked smiling. This guy was so shy it was almost adorable! But that didn't mean that she liked it.

He said something, but she couldn't hear it at first. She told him to speak up at least twice. "B-Bernard. My…name is Bernard." Lana's smile widened.

"Well…" Lana hopped off the top bunk abruptly, Bernard backing away from her slightly; making Lana smirk at his reaction. "I'm gonna go check out that shower!" she said, quite enthusiastic. And she was in fact, very excited! Running water was a rare commodity, and clean water was even more so! She wondered what pure water tasted like!

She was amazed when she poked her head in the room. "Wow! I can't believe it!" The door slid shut behind her. "Running water! This is great!" This was a far cry from the slums! Now she was amused!

She stripped immediately and left Bernard to dress himself in the other room. Her giggles and ooohs of intrigue could be heard coming through the door. Lana did however think it acceptable to poke her head out of the bathroom, unaware that her chest was partially visible; to ask Bernard if the water was actually drinkable. When she was told it was possible she grinned and hurried back into the bathroom only to slip and hit her head on the floor.

A few minutes later, clean and quite satisfied, Lana emerged from the small bathroom and sent Bernard jolting for the other side of the room. "Hey Bernard do you know where I can find a towel or something?" "W-why Miss…y- you.." "Lana." "Lana! For goodness sake! Please put some clothes on!" "Well I could if I had a towel." "Here! Here!" Bernard now dressed in a men's tank top and boxers threw her and extra towel that had been draped over a chair on his side of the small room. He covered his eyes. The red color was quite obvious on the rest of his uncovered face.

"Thank you!" Lana cheered and then walked carefully back to get dressed.

Again, Lana came out of the bathroom, very cheerful and squeaky clean in the same outfit that she wore earlier, only she took the liberty of putting on her shorts this time.

She climbed onto the top bunk and peered down at Bernard who was reading that horrible book now. When he looked up at her, he seemed much less nervous, although still very shy.

"Yes My lady?" He asked when he finally noticed that he was being studied.

"Oooh! My lady! Look whose all proper eh?" She laughed, not sure what she was talking about exactly, but she was bored and was kind of disappointed that she was no longer able to make him squirm. At least not for the time being…she might try again later.

Bernard simply smiled at her meekly and found his place before picking up a small handheld device; and began press the tough screen with a small pen. It made quiet beeping noises as he did so.

Obviously he came from a far more prestigious family background than she did. Most people in Haven city wouldn't be able to afford things like this in the first place unless they had a lot of dough for it. That shit was expensive!

But it was also very fascinating.

Lana of course, hung lower to see. "Watcha doin'?"

Bernard blew a dreadlock out of his face, but it fell back into its original position, blocking the grey of one eye. They almost matched the gray of Haven City, in all of it's gloom. But the contrast of his hair in between reminded Lana of something that she should know, but couldn't quite put her finger on…

"Reading a book on the laws of Haven City." Lana frowned in contempt for the book and its subject. She resented the fact that she had to enforce the very laws that practically kept her and her family in poverty, and the people of the city suffering.

"I agree." He chuckled, taking note of her expression.

"Did you know that the Baron has now gone as far as to outlaw hover boarding? Outrageous!"

"Okay." Lana answered. "But what are you doin' with that thing?"

"Oh, this?" Bernard held it in his left hand and poked at it a few times with the pen. It "pinged" when he opened up a window on the screen.

"I was sending a message to a family member."

"Rich guy huh? Who were you sending it to? Your mom?"

Bernard frowned for a moment and gave her an insulted expression.

"What?" Lana shrunk back a bit. She didn't mean anything by it really. She was just going to tease him a bit.

"If you must know…" Bernard began. "I was indeed sending a message to my mother. I am trying to convince her that I will be alright and to stop texting me. And yes, I come from a prestigious family background." Bernard spoke as though he was slightly annoyed but his voice leveled back to the calm that Lana had heard earlier.

"Where are you from, if I may ask?" Bernard questioned after a moment of silence.

"The slums." Lana answered coldly, and waited for Bernard to answer.

She was expecting to get a disgusted reaction from this rich man sitting below her. He probably thought he was so cool; with all of his fancy handhelds, untattered clothes, and unnecessarily extensive vocabulary! He would most likely gag at the thought of being in the same room as a filthy street rat of the slums! Ha! He wasn't so great!

"Ah." He responded, unaffected by Lana's origin. "I have…well, had friends from the slums."

"Oh." Now she felt bad. She judged him before he had even answered her. Lana exhaled the bitterness and reconciled. Maybe not all rich people were so bad.

Lana her playful mood now shattered lifted herself back onto her bunk and rolled onto her side, now at a loss of what to say.

"Excuse me, Miss?"

"My name's Lana, not Miss." She answered bluntly; wondering why he was being so formal. Why was he trying to be such a gentleman?

Lana tried to fight back her amusement, because she didn't want to feel amused at the moment. But it just tickled her because she had never been spoken to by a gentleman before! He didn't continue, knowing that Lana wished to be left alone.

It wasn't too long until the lights had been turned off. Lana and Bernard both lay awake in their bunks. One poking away at a handheld now silenced, and the other wondering about the one below her. Bernard seemed so kind, and he didn't really seem like Krimson Guard material to her. In fact, many of the guard that she had to deal with in the past were awful! Big brutes in blood red armor and now she was one!

Lana grumbled and rolled over. She knew she was also jealous. Bernard was wealthy, good looking, actually had an education (Lana's family never had the money for one anyway) and he actually still had a family. He had everything, and he certainly didn't belong here.

"Hey, Bernard?"

WHACK! Bernard jolted up again and slammed his head on the bunk above him. Good lord was he jumpy! He was such a scaredy cat!

"Y-yes Malady? Oh…I-I mean Lana…?"

He had obviously been startled because he probably assumed that she was asleep.

"Why are you here exactly? Shouldn't you be off in a nice house somewhere learning about business or going to some fancy school or something?"

"Oh…" Bernard relaxed slightly, but his tone sounded more like he was a bit hurt by Lana's question.

"Well...not exactly." He choked shyly. "I…well I was drafted actually."

"Oh." Lana was surprised. The KG must really have been getting their butts kicked if they were drafting the rich people too!

Another silence, Like many that night, fell over the room. Until Lana spoke again that is.

"Hey Bernard?" He didn't jump this time but just listened as he lay attempting to sleep.

"What do you learn in school?"

"I went to college." He said sleepily, and yawned and mumbled something, All Lana could make out were the words "eco", "technology" and "plant life". The rest was just sleepy gibberish.

"Huh?" Lana asked, but Bernard's light breathing was the only answer that she received. He fell asleep…Lana thought. Cute…

She rolled over to face the wall once more and sighed. She would leave the brainiac alone for a little while. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.


	3. Chivalry

Day 3: Chivalry

Bernard, having been an early bird his entire life, thought it odd that Lana hadn't realized she would have to get up early for training. Early to bed, early to rise and all that.

So, seeing as he was finished, armor on and ready to go; he decided the respectable thing for a _gentleman_ to do would be to wake up his bunkmate.

"Lala...lala…?" he stopped. That wasn't right at all. He was horrible with names and this was not the time to forget now was it? That was in fact why he often referred to a young lady as "My lady", "Ma'am", or "Miss".

"Lana?" There.

"Lana…" He reached out and shook her slightly. "Wake up or you'll be late miss."

"Uhhh…five more minutes." She groaned. "No…" Bernard tried to be firm. "You only have a few minutes! Wake up."

"Alaric…It's too early! Go back to bed." She whined

"Who is Alaric? Lana, get up!"

"Mmm!" Lana protested; rolling over and putting the pillow over her head to block him out.

"Fine. I'm going to go get Smokey the Pedo Bear and see if he cannot get you out of bed then."

**That got her out of bed.**

Lana scrambled out of her bunk and yelled when she sat up from falling on the floor, arms above her head in surprise and surrender. "I'm up! I'm up! Hey…"

"Yes?" Bernard asked picking up his helmet, with a oddly coy smirk on his face.

"How did you know about him?" "You talk in your sleep. And "Smokey" as you call him did my tattoos as well. And, he is no pedophile. Actually he's not much older than you Malady. Perhaps it is time that you showed a bit of respect for your superiors?" He spoke with a bit of authority , which Lana found a bit irritating but dealt with it, thinking that maybe he knew this "Smokey"; as he was called. Bernard seemed awfully bold now that he was well rested.

Lana got up from the floor and frowned, making a face and mocking him as she rushed to get her uniform and armor on. It took her till just now to realize that her uniform was a bit more befitting of a woman's shape….meaning she wasn't going to blend in as much as she might have hoped. Well…I'm boned." she thought.

" Shall I escort you t-to basic training, Lana?" Bernard stuttered as his gray rabbit eyes darted shyly away from Lana, who was not getting undressed. She didn't seem to mind one bit that there was a man in the room.

"Why…?" Lana smirked. How cute…he really was a gentlemen, _Yeah…_ she thought. _ He really __**wont'**__ last here!_

"Be-because…do you… know your way there?"

"yeah yeah." She waved a hand at him with her sheet of paper in it; trying to get the legs of her armor on, and not caring. "You go ahead Bernard. I can get there just fine."

But in actuality, she had no idea where she was going. And on her way there she not only realized that she had no sense of direction, but that she was getting some very strange and unwanted looks from the other Krimson Guards that she would rather have avoided.

She was of course, late for basic training but managed to slip into formation during a drill before any of the other guards noticed that she had been missing.

She thought she was pretty slick.

Thankfully, she was in line next to Bernard which helped things to not be as miserable. Perhaps this wasn't going to be so awful after all?

But she was so very wrong.

"4428 dash 652!" Lana stopped abruptly which made the guards behind her slam into her, sending her flying to the feet of the man that addressed.

She didn't need any military training to know what she was supposed to do when addressed by a commanding officer, so she rose quickly as the other picked themselves up and stood at attention.

However, this was the one person that she did not want to be speaking to, nor did she want to be noticed.

It was the same man who escorted her from her family to this place and possibly who gave the order to raid her house in the first place. He was a leader of the Krimson Guard which meant she hated him even more than the rest. (With the exception of Bernard.)

The man in yellow stood before her, a professional and somewhat sly, scheming air about him. He was toned, like pretty much all of the other men around her (was she the only girl here!). It seemed to be a requirement now that she thought about it.

She took in more of his features: a strong chin, good posture, spiked light red hair that looked blown back for some odd reason. And there was this mask sitting atop his head, which if he pulled it over his face would have made him look like an alien or bug of some kind.

He was however easy on the eyes; but his presence screamed at the frequency of prick that Lana found uncomfortable, and disgusting.

He clearly recognized Lana' even from behind her helmet. "What is your name soldier?" Lana figured that she would have to answer properly.

"Name's Lana Sir!"

"Tell me…Lana…Do you think it acceptable to be tardy for your first day of basic training?" He stood and smirked at her in a way that said "I am in control" and waited for her response.

Busted!

"No Sir!"

"Then perhaps you would like to tell all of us why you're late?"

"Uhhh…"

It was obvious to Lana what was going on. It was a tactic that Mr. Commander-pants intended to use to embarrass her so that she wouldn't be late again. It was also a way to show dominance to the other novice KG among them. He was trying to show who was boss.

"We're waiting." He urged.

After a very thorough embarrassment on her part, Lana allowed Bernard to "escort" her to the rest of their destinations for the day. But from now on she promised herself that it would no longer be a gentlemanly escort, but just help from a friend. She didn't at all like the sudden royal treatment just because she was a woman!

She leaned over to speak to Bernard, unnoticed as their commanding officer barked orders as to what will be done and when.

"What was all that about anyway?" Lana whispered nervously.

"I wouldn't worry about it." Bernard assured her.

"Okay I won't then." Lana breathed a sigh of relief. She was probably worrying too much. As she often did. He would probably just have her clean a whole bunch of nasty gunk from some gross thing that hadn't been cleaned in months with a toothbrush or something of that sort. And she could handle that. It would be nothing she hadn't had to deal with while living in the slums, no problem!

The rest of the day went on with little to no awkward goings on. Except for when a demonstration on hand to hand combat went horribly awry.

Bernard and another female guard by the name of Ashlyn were to give the demonstration for many of the other soldiers. But Bernard being the gentleman that he was, absolutely refused to strike a woman. Not only out of chivalry, but out of respect for women in general, as well as the fact that everyone was convinced that he might not even be able to fight his way out of a cardboard box!

"I cannot." Bernard spoke firmly, a hand raised in refusal. "I would never im my life consider striking a woman."

Ashlyn's expression went serious, to deadly. It said to Lana that the other guard member had thought the same of the poor guy that she had! _Oh god he's screwed!_ Lana thought, palming her forehead.

In light of Bernard's chivalrous statement, Ashlyn responded with a hearty

"Fine by me!" and therefore proceeded to beat the ever living hell out of the young man!

Needless to say, Bernard ended up in the infirmary.

He had kept his word and had not so much as raised a finger to strike at Ashlyn. Which apparently, didn't seem to bother anyone at all. In fact, most of the other Krimson guards (all male except for Lana and Ashlyn at the moment) thought it hilarious that the scrawny guy got beat up by a girl. But what they wouldn't admit was that they were all afraid to take her on themselves.

But eventually Banana man (which to Lana meant Erol, when he wasn't looking) had to break up the fight before Bernard was injured too seriously. Bernard seemed satisfied however. Lana was certainly impressed! And even Ashlyn seemed to be intrigued at this reaction.

Infirmary:

There was no nurse in the infirmary. No doctor. Just simple supplies for a quick patch up and that was all. And stupid Erol after helping her drag Bernard into the infirmary, left her alone with him to be said medical professional; which she was not!

But it would have to do. Thanks a lot commander!

"Okay…This is going to sting." Lana warned. "Sssss!" Bernard hissed.

"A lot." Lana finished swabbing another wound. Ashlyn must have had really sharp nails or something!

"Nonsense..." Bernard cringed. "I'm fine!

Lana took hold of his right arm, which was very broken and scoffed; clearly not convinced. A broken arm at the elbow was not fine at all!

"Actually, I'm wonderful!" Bernard went on. "I'm…IN EXTREME PAIN!"

With one quick movement, Lana put Bernard's arm back in its proper position as he screamed bloody murder. "ahhhh….." Bernard's voice strained. "That hurt…"

Lana smiled as she wrapped his cast.

"And what is that for, if I may ask?" Bernard asked with a smile twice as sweet.

"That was really cool, what you did back there." Lana answered, wrapping the last layer.

"You showed those guys up!"

Bernard's face flushed with color.

"Oh…no…not at all." He stuttered, hiding his shy eyes behind the dreadlocks that hung in his face.

"It was cool, wasn't it?" Another female voice spoke from the door to the infirmary. Lana simply looked, but Bernard jolted in his seat and then clutched his broken arm and hissed in pain once more.

It was Ashlyn. She leaned in the doorway, and flipped a red dreadlock out of her intense face.

"I'm impressed." she said to Lana. Lana didn't answer her at first, because she was busy trying to get a very reluctant Bernard to let her put his arm in a sling.

"You really seem to know what you're doing. Where did you learn to do this?" Ashlyn asked, authoritatively.

"I learned from home." Lana answered simply, and rose to get more bandages out of the cabinet above her. Ashlyn raised an eyebrow.

"In the slums people can't afford to go see a doctor, or go to school to learn to be a doctor. So I spent a lot of time patching people up here and there. And so here I am, patching up Bernard."

"I see. So you do know what you're doing then?"

"People seem to get by okay after they see me." Lana answered modestly.

'Then you're our new doctor." Ashlyn ordered.

"I do believe that you mean nurse, Malady." Bernard interrupted, but almost flinched at Ashlyn's hard stare.

"Nurse." She restated harshly, returning her attention to Lana.

"But what happened to the old doctor?" Lana did not at all like this idea! She only knew how to help with small things like food poisoning, general sicknesses, broken bones, minor gunshot wounds and the like. Then it occurred to her that her services were probably all that they could scrape up. The KG really must have gone to hell lately!

"Yes ma'am." Lana stood at attention and saluted.

"And you!" Bernard jumped in his seat on a stool. Ashlyn scolded him. "You can't get by as a soldier with that "gentleman" act! You'll get yourself killed out there."

Ashlyn sauntered out of the room; the door sliding shut behind her.

"Well _she's _certainly feisty isn't she?" Bernard chuckled.

"Bitch." Lana mumbled, taking out a bottle of antiseptic.

"Now…" Bernard began; Lana continuing to clean his wounds. "I don't believe that she's all bad. After all, it is her job to be harsh. Try to understand."

"I understand that she's a bitch." Lana grumbled angrily.

Bernard sighed in defeat. Lana was utterly impossible.


	4. Suprise

Day 4: Surprise

"WE'RE ON PATROL! BERNARD GET UP! GET UP!"

_What a wonderful way to start a morning… _ Bernard smiled but plugged his ears. It was only 4:30am and Lana had gotten him up half an hour early. This was by the way, far too early for so much noise!

"On Patrooooool!" Lana sang aloud clearly excited about getting to go back and visit her old home; even though it smelled bad, and was dirty…and all the people were either homeless or poor. But hey, home was home and she couldn't deny it.

She yanked Bernard clear out of his bunk and began throwing his armor at him piece by piece, now humming the tune that Bernard often did.

"This is gonna be awesome!" She exclaimed, while Bernard was focused on catching the KG armor and putting it on at the same time. The left shoulder piece flew from Lana's hand and struck him in the head. _Ouch…_

It had been a few weeks and Lana had been taking good care of Bernard as the injuries from his fight with Ashlyn healed. And now, other than a bit of pain in the joints and a few scars, Bernard was ready to go! He was even a lot less neurotic and jumpy as he used to be. He no longer shrank away from Lana when she looked at him, and had even struck up a conversation with Ashlyn once or twice! There seemed to be no hard feelings between the two, and Ashlyn could even be caught _laughing _ at a few of Bernard's witty jokes!

After finally getting the rest of his armor on, Lana slapped Bernard's helmet over his head. She however had already been dressed a long time ago, and waited impatiently to for him to adjust it.

"C'mon Bernard! We have to go now!"

Apparently, it was necessary that the newbies got a bit of last minute instruction. The man to give that instruction looked quite a bit like Bernard, except for his "sunny" disposition, stern expression and the fact that his voice sounded like he either had a cold, or he was a chain smoker. Perhaps he was related to Smokey? A brother or cousin of his maybe? This made Lana smirk.

But the fact still stood that he and Bernard looked a lot alike. It was very easy to see him because he wasn't wearing his KG armor. He had similar dreadlocks of the same color as Bernard, except his were tied back with an orange type of twine in thick sections. Bernard's dreads were thin and woven, which would have taken hours to do.

If they had the same tattoos, and one was to copy the voice of the other, they would easily be mixed up.

His name, the soldiers were told, was Torn.

"Now what you want to do…" Torn rasped, "…is come at the vehicle straight on. It's very likely that they will veer to dodge you when you try to electrocute them."

After a short time, he finished with the advice and proceeded to ask if anyone had any questions.

"Yeah I have a question!" Lana waved a hand in the air briefly to show where she was.

"Alright, the young woman in the back." Torn's voice slunk out dryly, in a mischievous way. "What is your question?"

"How stupid do you think we are?"

"Here we go…" Bernard rolled his rainy eyes.

Torn cocked an eyebrow.

"You want us to run straight at a moving vehicle, full speed mind you; with nothing but a long stick that makes electricity? Are you insane? What are we supposed to do with sticks? Jump on the car and beat 'em to death? I don't think so."

The grim man with the odd voice looked a bit surprised at first, but then only smirked at her.

"That's what armor's for."

Later: Stationed in the slums

Lana had decided to take a different approach, and station herself on top of a building adjacent to the burnt pot mark where her own home used to be. She hated it here, but it was a great vantage point now that the building wasn't in the way.

"I can't believe him! That's what armor's for!"

Lana mocked Torn with a raspy, gremlin voice.

"I'm Torn I have Laryngitis!" She kept exaggerating, not caring that other Krimson guards could hear her and were laughing.

"I agree. " Bernard radioed her from a few yards away.

"I know right?" Lana was acting as though she was talking to a friend on the phone. If she ever had one anyway.

"By the way…" Bernard began

"Yeah?"

"Why are you on top of that building?"

There was a moment of silence on the radio, and a few others could be heard laughing, while Lana could see a few civilians pointing and snickering at her from her position on a roof. Other people were simply watching to see what in the world it was that she was doing.

"You'll see!"

"Let me guess" she could hear some random Krimson Guard from her squad. This one was a regular smart ass.

"You've got some amazing plan to catch a criminal?"

Lana was fuming by this point.

"Shut up Kale! It's better than that old geezer's idea!" she yelled down at him but that only made everyone laugh harder. Nobody told her that Torn was old however. She had just assumed from his voice.

"Whatever." She settled on the roof and waited, trying to maintain her cool.

Nothing happened.

A few hours later, quite bored; Lana decided to come down and join Bernard at his station. There was nothing at all going on where she was at, and the odd stares were beginning to get very unsettling. But, on her way there was a group of three girls passing Bernard as he radioed her from his position once more.

"Did you finally decide to come down, Lana?" he chuckled.

All three of the girls seemed horribly out of place. It was probably because they were wearing considerably new looking clothes, and they weren't dirty. What were they doing here?

One of the young women stopped in in their tracks when Bernard radioed Lana from his position.

"Did you finally decide to come down?" he chuckled at her.

"Bernard!" A high pitched, extremely preppy tone came from her voice.

_Ugh… _Lana scrunched her nose from behind her helmet, not amused. She really didn't like preppy girls, or rich ones for that matter.

The other two girls stopped after walking another few steps, the one on the left looked shocked, the other saying excitedly "Oh my God! Is that our Bernie!"

"Oh my god!" all three chimed in at once and crowded around him like a pack of hyenas on a carcass, giggling and babbling in excitement to one another.

Bernard seemed to know these women, and greeted them fondly.

"Good morning ladies." He didn't stutter, so he obviously knew them somehow.

Another unanimous giggle, and all three hugged him, even though they couldn't exactly get to him because of his armor.

"Oh! Lana!" Bernard gently pressed the others off of him. Many of the civilians looked again in disbelief. It was not at all common for someone to approach a guard, not much less hug one! Many did a double take, while others stood across the street and watched a moment before moving on.

"Who's she?" The original girl who first greeted him asked; her tone somewhat disappointed. She brushed her long raven hair behind a long ear, and exposed her plastic looking face and pale skin. She wore a very fancy looking black blouse with ruffles down its v-shaped neck, which showed a little too much cleavage. She wore a very tight pair of pants and had perfectly manicured nails, and the like. Her friends seemed to be a pair of twins, both blonde and wearing pink shirts and white skirts with high heels. Those there definitely didn't belong here, and Lana _definitely _didn't like them.

"This is my friend from the guard." Bernard motioned for Lana to join them.

"Her name is Lana." Lana and the group of three looked at each other in contempt.

"Hello." Lana was the first to greet them. At least_ someone_ here had some manners.

"Yeah, Hi. Whatever." The raven waved a hand. She had that stuffy air about her that made Lana want to puncher in the face. Bernard seemed to pay no mind.

"Lana," he began "This is Jess." He motioned toward the raven haired prep next to him. "Jess" must have been short for "Jessica" or something.

"And those two lovely ladies over there…" he motioned toward the twins who blushed and giggled at the comment. "…are Fae and Laeya."

The raven changed the subject, clearly not interested in a Krimson guard girl. She probably thought that Lana was gruff and overbearing. Or just didn't care. _Bitch_ Lana thought.

"Bernard…" she began cutely. "Why haven't you been answering our messages? You have been getting them haven't you?" She batted her eyes and moved closer to Bernard, which seemed to make him uncomfortable.

"He's been busy." Lana stated. _"We_ have been busy with basic training." She looked over at Bernard. She couldn't see his expression through his helmet, but Lana figured that it would tell her that he was at a loss.

"Very busy." Lana finished.

All three girls scowled from beside Bernard.

"Bernie…" One of the twins began in an equally playful tone. Though which one was Laeya and which one was Fae, Lana didn't know.

"Why are you friends with this girl? She's so _dreary_."

Lana placed a hand on a weapons pouch where she kept a number of knives and pointy things.

"I can take that lovely vocabulary of yours and shove it right up your prissy little…"

"Duck!" Bernard screamed.

A loud WOOSH came from behind Lana, and swept her away before she even had time to register the fact that Bernard had called out.

Some idiot on a zoomer had blasted passed them, almost ramming them; but the back rutter had hooked onto the strap of her weapons pouch and was whisking her away at top speed! And holy shit did it burn!

Lana managed to grab onto the ankle of the person driving, but as they tried to shake her off, a sign hit her in the head and knocked off her helmet with a loud crraack!

_Well…I guess I won't be using that again!_

Lana's long brown hair waved violently behind her, the man telling her to get off.

"Hey! Are you crazy! Let go!"

He veered to one side, making the jet burn through the leather of a strap on her back. Her long rod fell to the ground and knocked out some random person as she and the driver whizzed by.

"Get off!" He yelled again.

He steered the tail toward a building, trying to force her to get off. But somehow Lana managed to get her legs up to block; and for a split second was running on the side of the building, and kicked in a window.

Now what she was on the side of the car, the burning sensation from the hot metal armor was fading. She began to climb up the side; and was clearly not welcome to be there.

The driver faltered and wasn't paying attention to the other traffic, and slammed into a much bigger, 3 seated zoomer. BOOM!

The vehicle was crushed like an aluminum can and sent both driver and guard hurtling onto the ground. The driver, ad Lana were however able to somehow roll with the impact; ending with Lana on top of him, and a knife at his throat. All of the people in the vicinity scattered.

"You're under arrest!" Lana yelled and bared her teeth, the tattoos making it all the more intimidating. She was about to radio for assistance, but then remembered that her helmet had been destroyed when this idiot rammed her into a sign.

After getting a closer look at the assailant's face, Lana began to notice some familiar features. Stubble, a scar on the left eyebrow, short black hair and a cigar butt between his clenched teeth...which now had blood on them because his lip had been busted in the struggle.

"Smokey?"

The elder looking man reacted in surprise, before he also recognized Lana.

He wasn't wearing his uniform, but was wearing very normal attire. A simple green shirt and baggie denim jeans, with weapon pouches holding guns, and no doubt a few knives.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Get off me!"

Lana got up. She didn't know that she had been after a superior.

"Why aren't you in uniform?" Lana asked as Smokey dusted himself off, and pulled another cigar out of his pocket. This guy smoked like a chimney…..

He lit the cigar, took a puff, blew out and then answered.

" Sorry about that. But I need to go, 'cause here comes your buddies."


End file.
